Intruder stabs Russian radio host in the throat

Russian radio host Tatyana Felgengauer was placed in a medically-induced coma after she was stabbed in the neck by an intruder at the Echo of Moscow's studio on Monday.
Photo by Echo Moskvy/EPA

Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A Russian radio host is in intensive care after being stabbed by a man who broke into a radio station on Monday, officials said.

Tatyana Felgenhauer, deputy editor of the Echo of Moscow radio station, was stabbed in the throat by an intruder who allegedly broke into the station's studios in a central Moscow tower block at lunchtime and carried out the attack.

Alexei Venediktov, the station's editor-in-chief, said doctors operated on Felgenhauer, 32, for more than an hour. She entered a medically-induced coma, but doctors don't believe her life is in immediate danger.

Police identified the attacker as 48-year-old Boris Grits, a man with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship who recently returned to Moscow after moving to Israel in 2003.

"How did he know Tanya would still be here? By the time of the attack, she would normally have left. There are many questions," he said.

Echo of Moscow is one of few independent outlets in Russia and is sharply critical of President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

Yevgenia Albats, a magazine editor who has a show on the station, said liberal journalists in the country are subject to constant aggression.

"The amount of aggression directed towards liberal journalists in this country from state media and elsewhere is overwhelming and non-stop," she said. "Nobody is going to defend us; we're the enemies of everyone."